Tag Archives: healthy-living

We’ve had our first snow and the stores are littered with Christmas decorations, yet I still can’t believe Thanksgiving is just over a week away. Time flies.

The holidays can be one of the most difficult times to stay on track when it comes to making healthy choices. It becomes even more difficult when you don’t have a support system in place, encouraging you to keep keeping on when it comes to diet and exercise.

Last year, I participated in the Elf 4 Health challenge created by Elle and Lindsay. Throughout the holiday season they arranged daily challenges which help hold you accountable and healthy! The best part is you are matched with your own elf to cheer you on. The whole community is incredibly supportive, but it’s cool to get to know a new friend.

I just signed up and there’s still time for you to do so too! The image below offers a sneak peek of the fun challenges to come. Hope some of you participate. I’ll be blogging some of my experiences throughout the whole thing, so stay tuned for that as well!

How do you stay healthy over the holidays?

Hey there – just stopping in real quick to share another article with you guys. In case you missed it, last week I shared How to Eat Healthy on a Budget.

This Sunday is World Health Day and the theme for this year is high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a serious condition that can have serious health consequences. However, luckily, it’s a treatable and preventable condition.

Hop on over to the Charter Fitness Blog and learn a few ways you can reduce your risk for high blood pressure.

Let’s recap a bit, shall we? If you missed my intro the Elf 4 Health challenge, no worries, check it out here. I’ve been paired up with a great Elf, who happens to be from the same area I’m from – such a coincidence! She’s been motivating and fun to chat with throughout the challenges so far.

Week 1 Recap

Monday’s challenge was pretty easy for me since it dealt with drinking enough water throughout the day. I constantly have a water bottle by my side. I ended the day with 152 oz of water.

Tuesday’s challenge was to clean out the pantry or fridge and get ride of unhealthy or expired items. I’d recently done this so there wasn’t too much to sort through, but I got rid of a bunch of old food in the fridge.

Wednesday was a veggie challenge. Eat three servings before 2pm which was pretty tough for me. Veggies in the morning – just not my thing. However, I ate some sugar snap peas for a snack and leftover rice with carrots, onions and tomatoes for lunch.

Thursday was a pay it forward challenge. It was suggested to buy coffee for the person behind you in line or buy lunch for a coworker/friend. I don’t usually stop for coffee and in a small office it’s hard to single out a coworker, so as luck would have it I was able to donate $5 at the grocery store that went to give a meal to a family in need.

My elf buddy did the cutest thing – she gave out Kcups with little notes. Look how cute!

Friday’s challenge was to work out with a friend. Well Friday is usually my rest day, so instead I made plans for some future buddy workouts. Yoga classes and races are on the agenda for the coming weeks and months.

Weekend challenge: Donate to a local charity. I cleaned out the closet and have gathered some coats to donate for winter.

Overall, I’d say it was a successful first week. Looking forward to next week’s challenges. Here they are if you are playing along at home!

Week 2 Challenges

Monday: Do a circuit workout

Tuesday: Treat yourself to something you’ve been craving!

Wednesday: Bake cookies

Thursday: Make a casserole for dinner tonight – add extra veggies!

Friday: Pay it forward. Do something nice for someone else.

Weekend: Going to a holiday? Have a healthy snack before you go, choose water and share dessert.

If you visit my little corner of the web often, you may have noticed something new on the right hand side of the page. Starting today, I’ll be participating in the Elf 4 Health challenge set up by two healthy living bloggers, Elle & Lindsay. The basic idea is to complete mini-challenges every day throughout the holidays to keep on pace with healthy habits even when times get busy, people get stressed and the food gets decadent.

This is the second round and I’ve been paired up with another elf to help motivate each other through the challenges. I’ve sent off an email to her and can’t wait to connect. If you’d like to play along at home, I’ve posted this week’s challenges below. Join in on Twitter and Instagram by using the hashtag #elf4health.

Visit this page if you’d like even more information on the challenge and to find out how you can participate in round 3! I’ll try to post my progress with the challenges every couple of days.

It’s Monday and most of us have made it back to the 9-to-5 grind after what was hopefully an enjoyable and probably more active weekend. Thank you summer-like temps.

Desk jobs have us sitting and staring at computer screens more than ever and the media is having a field day with this information. Seems like everywhere I turn, there’s a new article discussing why sitting all day is killing me. A bit dramatic, yes. Are they right? Yes and no. While I don’t think death is going to fall upon you if you sit at a desk for most of the day, but it’s not good to be sedentary all day either.

Since I love infographics, I thought I share this piece on working out in the workplace. Let me know how those cubicle wallsits and desk pushups go for you.